Collaborate and Innovate: Archive Testbed Fund Application Form Guidance

1. **Name and address of applicant archive** Please provide the name and address of the organisation applying for a grant under the Archive Testbed fund.

2. **Name and contact details of lead contact at archive service** Please provide the name and contact details for the person who is acting as the lead contact for this application.

3. **Please describe your organisation and archive collection, including how your archive is managed, your access to professional archive expertise and how you make the archive accessible to people outside your organisation**

   Archive services applying to the Archive Testbed fund need to be able to demonstrate some key eligibility criteria that provides assurance relating to how the organisation meets appropriate standards of collections management, has access to professional advice and support, and provides public access.

   In your description of your organisation and archive, please make sure you including the following:

   - Governance and structure – describe the type of organisation, and the governance and management structure in place
   - Staffing and access to professional archive expertise – describe who is responsible for caring for and managing the collection and state whether they have professional archive qualifications. If not, describe how you ensure your organisation receives appropriate professional advice and support to ensure the effective and responsible management of the collection.
   - Overview of archive collections – summarise the content of the archives held by the organisation
   - Access to the collection – describe how you make the collection accessible to people outside of the organisation

4. Please describe the idea you would like to test, explore or evolve

We would like to get a clear understanding of what your idea is and why your idea is innovative, new, different or vital in bringing about positive change and improvement. You may find considering the following questions helpful in putting together your answer:

- Does the idea relate to creating a process, method, approach or project?
- Does it solve a problem? What is the problem it is trying to solve?
- Is the idea new?
- Does it offer a new or different approach?
- Is it unusual or unique?
- Has it been tried before?
- Is it an improvement on something that has been tried before?

5. Please select a theme from Archives Unlocked that your idea most closely relates to: (Resilience, Impact, Digital)

Archives Unlocked is The National Archives’ vision for the archive sector, with the ambition that archives can inspire trust, enrich society, and cultivate openness and accessibility. Archives Unlocked identifies three themes that will help achieve these ambitions for the sector, with an action plan highlighting how the sector can deliver activities against these themes.

Applicants should indicate which theme in Archives Unlocked is most relevant to their idea. The themes are: Resilience, Impact and Digital. Please see the Inspiration Guide for more information about the activities that may be relevant in each theme.

6. Please describe how you intend to test, explore or evolve your idea?

The Archive Testbed Fund would like to support projects and ideas that have a clear and well-planned methodology and approach. You should demonstrate an appropriate level of planning and show that you are aware of potential risks. You may like to consider the following questions when writing your answer:

How are you going to test or explore your idea?

Do you have a project plan? What approach are you going to take to manage this process? What methodology will you use? How will you record the result and analyse any data or outcomes? Have you considered any risks? What will you do if your test or approach doesn’t go according to plan? 7. Please describe how your idea could lead to positive change or improvement in the way archives are understood, managed, accessed or used?

The Archive Testbed Fund aims to support projects that have a positive impact on archive services. Please provide information about the impact that your project/test will have on your archive service. This may relate to improvement in the management of the archive service, improvements to access, improved efficiency or better service delivery, for example. We are particularly interested in supporting projects that provide transformative impact for the archive service, so please describe how your archive service might use the grant as a mechanism for further development in your organisation.

We are also very interested in projects that can demonstrate impacts more widely across the archive sector. In your response, please show how your idea will have wider applicability in the archive sector, who else might benefit from the project, and how you will ensure that the wider sector is aware of your project and can share in your learning experience.

8. How much are you requesting from the Archive Testbed Fund?

Please state how much you are requesting from the Archive Testbed fund. Note that the maximum grant is £5000.

9. Please provide a breakdown of the costs of testing or exploring your idea

Please provide a brief breakdown of how you have calculated the costs of your project to test or explore an idea. This may include materials, staff resource, and technical expertise.

10. Is your organisation or another organisation contributing to the costs of testing or exploring your idea, in cash or in kind? If so, please provide the details of these contributions.

We expect that all applicants are able to provide 10% match funding for the project in cash or in kind. Please state whether you intend to provide match funding, and how you will be approach this. For example, your organisation may be able to contribute materials, staff resource, and information systems, as well as or instead of a cash contribution.